BackgroundAn association between the severity of COVID-19 and the presence of certain chronic conditions has been suggested. However, unlike influenza and other viruses, the disease burden in patients with asthma has been less evident.ObjectiveTo understand the impact of COVID-19 in patients with asthma.MethodsUsing big data analytics and artificial intelligence through the SAVANA Manager® clinical platform, we analysed clinical data from patients with asthma from January 1st to May 10th, 2020.ResultsOut of 71 182 patients with asthma, 1006 (1.41%) suffered from COVID-19. Compared to asthmatic individuals without COVID-19, patients with asthma and COVID-19 were significantly older (55 versus 42 years), predominantly female (66% versus 59%), smoked more frequently, and had higher prevalence of hypertension, dyslipidemias, diabetes, and obesity. Allergy-related factors such as rhinitis and eczema were less common in asthmatic patients with COVID-19 (p<.001). Higher prevalence of these comorbidities was also observed in patients with COVID-19 who required hospital admission. The use of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) was lower in patients who required hospitalisation due to COVID-19, as compared to non-hospitalised patients (48.3% versus 61.5%; OR: 0.58: 95% CI 0.44–0.77). Although patients treated with biologics (n=865; 1.21%) showed increased severity and more comorbidities at the ENT level, COVID-19-related hospitalisations in these patients were relatively low (0.23%).ConclusionPatients with asthma and COVID-19 were older and at increased risk due to comorbidity-related factors. ICS and biologics are generally safe and may be associated with a protective effect against severe COVID-19 infection.

No abstract

While it is relatively well known that the prognosis of patients with lung cancer (LC) treated with surgery is worse in the presence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), it is unknown if this assessment can be extrapolated to patients with advanced disease treated with chemotherapy and/or tyrosine kinase inhibitors. The aim of our study is to analyze the clinical characteristics and survival rates in patients with LC and COPD, and to compare these to the patients without airflow obstruction. From 471 evaluable patients, 324 (69%) were not treated with surgery due to disseminated disease (stages 3B and 4). Of them, 47.7% also had COPD. All patients were treated at the moment of diagnosis according to National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines with platinum-based chemotherapy or tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Kaplan–Meier curves showed no significant differences in overall survival between COPD and non-COPD patients (log–rank P=0.65). In the multivariate Cox proportional hazard model adjusting for the most relevant variables, the adjusted hazard ratio (HRadj) was statistically significant for performance status (HRadj =1.33, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.11–1.59; P=0.002) and clinical stage (HRadj =0.67, 95% CI: 0.50–0.89; P=0.006), but not for COPD status (HRadj =1.20, 95% CI: 0.83–1.50; P=0.46). Our conclusion is that at present, when using standard care in advanced LC (stages 3B and 4), COPD does not have a significant deleterious impact on overall survival.

Despite the increasing evidence of the benefit of corticosteroids for the treatment of moderate-severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients, no data are available about the potential role of high doses of steroids for these patients. We evaluated the mortality, the risk of need for mechanical ventilation (MV), or death and the risk of developing a severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) between high (HD) and standard doses (SD) among patients with a severe COVID-19. All consecutive confirmed COVID-19 patients admitted to a single center were selected, including those treated with steroids and an ARDS. Patients were allocated to the HD (≥ 250 mg/day of methylprednisolone) of corticosteroids or the SD (≤ 1.5 mg/kg/day of methylprednisolone) at discretion of treating physician. Five hundred seventy-three patients were included: 428 (74.7%) men, with a median (IQR) age of 64 (54-73) years. In the HD group, a worse baseline respiratory situation was observed and male gender, older age, and comorbidities were significantly more common. After adjusting by baseline characteristics, HDs were associated with a higher mortality than SD (adjusted OR 2.46, 95% CI 1.59-3.81, p < 0.001) and with an increased risk of needing MV or death (adjusted OR 2.35, p = 0.001). Conversely, the risk of developing a severe ARDS was similar between groups. Interaction analysis showed that HD increased mortality exclusively in elderly patients. Our real-world experience advises against exceeding 1-1.5 mg/kg/day of corticosteroids for severe COVID-19 with an ARDS, especially in older subjects. This reinforces the rationale of modulating rather than suppressing immune responses in these patients.